1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a floating boom or barrier for collecting and restraining floatable material, such as liquid hydrocarbons, floating on the surface of a body of water, and more particularly to a segmented, inflatable boom incorporating check valves that automatically close to prevent the unwanted or unintended release of the inflating medium.
2. General Background
Conventional floating oil booms or barriers normally comprise an elongated tubular body that is produced by the inflation of a sealed tube to which the oil-confining skirt is attached. These booms or barriers are normally stored on land or on a ship in a collapsed deflated state, either by folding it flat or by rolling it upon a reel. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,682,151 and 3,494,132 which disclose a series of inflatable plastic tubes whose ends are interconnected by sleeves. Secured to each tube is a depending hollow skirt or fin having a weighted material (for ballast), such as lead shot or chain or sand or gravel, contained in or attached to the lower longitudinal edge of the fin.
Other patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,911, disclose a continuous inflatable tube one end of which is affixed to the deployment vessel. This deployment vessel supplies the tube with pressurized air or the like so as to inflate the tube in order to achieve the required degree of buoyancy necessary to float the boom. The opposite end of the tube, after it is fully deployed from the transport vessel, is then attached to either a second vessel or to a drogue or to some other means of securing this second end at sea.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,653 illustrates a collapsible boom which, in its inflated condition, incorporates double buoyancy chambers disposed on opposite sides of a central skirt. A tension wire is secured to the lower region of the skirt while two separate pressure hoses are secured to the upper region of the skirt above the buoyancy chambers. Inflation air is supplied to the buoyancy chambers through the pressure hoses with the preferable arrangement being to utilize a separate pressure hose for each buoyancy chamber. This inflation air is supplied to the pressure hoses from an external source via a rotary gland fitted at the reel core axis.
Each of the aforementioned patents has the disadvantage that should a leak develop or occur in the inflatable tube, such leak could seriously disrupt the buoyancy of the entire boom, thereby possibly rendering it non-functional.
An attempt to overcome this deficiency is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,792,589 which shows a collapsible boom that incorporates a plurality of individual inflatable compartments. However, each of these compartments must be separately inflated through separate valves as the boom is unrolled from the deploying vessel. This, obviously, greatly increases the time required to deploy the boom which becomes significant when a vast area is to be contained.
Thus, the above patents fail to disclose a rapidly deployable retaining boom and especially one which can withstand leaks or ruptures should they occur. Consequently, it is an object of this invention to provide a boom that incorporates separate, longitudinally spaced inflatable compartments that can be rapidly inflated.
Another object of this invention is to provide a boom which can withstand leaks or ruptures in individual compartments without compromising the function of adjacent compartments or the entire boom.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a reelable collapsible boom that is not bulky when stored and will not lose its expansion capabilities when stored for long periods of time.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an elongated inflatable boom that can be coupled to other such elongated inflatable booms, thereby providing a means to cordon off or surround a given area.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a boom that need be inflated only from a single end and which can be inflated either before or after deployment into the water.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a boom that does not rely upon mechanical valves to isolate or inflate the various separate inflatable compartments.
Furthermore, an object of this invention is to provide a means for automatically inflating and deflating the separate compartments of the boom as needed.
Additionally, it is an object of this invention to provide a boom that, because of it being so inexpensive, need not be cleaned after each use for subsequent re-use, but instead can be discarded if so desired, thereby eliminating such cleaning and repair costs.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a boom that can be employed to contain oil spilled on water that has been ignited and is burning. To burn oil safely, it must be contained by booms which are capable of withstanding high temperatures. The invention can be employed as a fire boom by covering its exterior surface with an insulating material and then pumping cool air or liquid through the inflation chamber to keep the interior of the boom cool.
These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become obvious upon further investigation.